phoenixs4r
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jun 16, 2011
- Messages
- 1,566
- Reaction score
- 93
Brewed this about 2 months ago. Very bland. Not bad at all. But very bland. No spices, slight pumpkin smell, very little taste.
Autumn Seasonal Beer Samhain Pumpkin Ale
- Thread starter KingBrianI
- Start date
Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:
bottlebomber
Well-Known Member
phoenixs4r said:
Man I wasn't gonna be that harsh, but those were kind of my sentiments. It needs something... I was thinking of upping the spices and adding some crystal or caramel malt. I was considering dumping a pint of Myers dark rum in the batch I have finishing now.
WarrantedFED
Well-Known Member
Did anyone else have excessively huge amounts of sediment?
joeybeer
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Dec 13, 2009
- Messages
- 567
- Reaction score
- 26
bottlebomber said:
I was thinking the same thing as I moved it to secondary ... Let us know the details on the spice tea & rum, i'd like the spices to be very present, but not over the top. Right now they're barely perceptible
OP
OP
KingBrianI
Well-Known Member
It's weird the spices haven't been strong enough for some of you. I think they are just right, not overpowering but definitely noticeable. Some people earlier in the thread commented that they were too strong and that they would cut them down the next time. I guess it all comes down to personal preference. Well, that or using fresh spices. Did you guys who don't think the spice notes are strong enough use fresh spices or old dried up stuff?
aceinthehole
Active Member
Yeah, I had quite a bit of sediment, I racked to secondary after 14 days, which helped clean it up. I bottled saturday, and only netted 41 bottles though... So I lost quite a bit.
bottlebomber
Well-Known Member
KingBrianI said:
I used fresh whole spices, which I toasted and ground so that wasn't the issue. As you say though, it really just comes down to preferences...
midfielder5
Well-Known Member
I made this brew yesterday: the spices came through nice when I tasted it post-boil. Delicious. Thanks Brian.
OP
OP
KingBrianI
Well-Known Member
bottlebomber
Well-Known Member
Whoever said they were going to brew this as a Saison, that's a great idea. Its not going to happen this year, but maybe next summer ill brew this mashing a little cooler, and use a saison yeast
midfielder5
Well-Known Member
Brian,
we are having our Indian Summer here in SF-- even in an ice bath for my bucket, my hydrated S-04 dry yeast ripped it to 1.012 in a few days. The more interesting development is that the hydrometer sample was excellent! Can't wait for it to condition, etc.
we are having our Indian Summer here in SF-- even in an ice bath for my bucket, my hydrated S-04 dry yeast ripped it to 1.012 in a few days. The more interesting development is that the hydrometer sample was excellent! Can't wait for it to condition, etc.
WarrantedFED
Well-Known Member
aceinthehole said:
I'm trying to decide if I should just consider this portion as waste. I wonder if there is anything drinkable in there that could be filtered out....
Maybe I could make something out of it. It seems a shame to waste it.
bottlebomber
Well-Known Member
WarrantedFED said:
Dude did you live through the great depression? Its trub!
WarrantedFED
Well-Known Member
bottlebomber said:Dude did you live through the great depression? Its trub!
You're right. My wife just looked at me like I was kind of crazy when I asked her if she thought I could make soap out of it.
Brewing this tonight. Cant wait after reading all the rave reviews. Baked my grains last night, I think 24 hours should be enough time for them to mellow. About to bake my pumpkin now. My local shops didnt have Denny's or Pacman so I am using my harvested 001 Cal Ale. Hopefully this will work fine????
OP
OP
KingBrianI
Well-Known Member
wlp-001 should work fine. Just bump the mash up to 154 and it'll be great.
WarrantedFED
Well-Known Member
WarrantedFED said:
I've decided to order the pumpkin ale extract kit from Northern Brewer and to put the wort onto the trub.
I accept that for a variety of reasons that I do so at my own peril, but call it a personality flaw or whatever, I have never overpitched the heck out of a beer before in this manner and I'd like to form my own opinion of the merits of doing so!
Like a butter knife into the electrical outlet, here I go!!
I just checked my hydro sample and it tastes really good, but feels like it needs a little extra flavor.
How much should I add to the keg?
How much should I add to the keg?
bottlebomber
Well-Known Member
elproducto said:
I basically doubled the spices by making some spice tea. Some might call it an overkill, but the amount of spices (and I definitely used fresh ones) that the recipe called for really only imparted a faint odor of spice, not a real flavor.
Rolly
Well-Known Member
I brewed this about a week ago as written. It smelled and tasted amazing going into the fermenter. After the ferment it still smelled amazing with a lot of spice on the nose. But I couldn't really taste any spice. It tasted a like the toasted malt and had a vegetal character from the pumpkin.
So I brought about a cup of water to a boil and added to it 8 oz maltodextrin, the original amount of spices, and one split vanilla bean. I let this continue to boil for about 30 seconds, then cooled. I added this tea to the primary a few days ago, and haven't tasted it again. Hopefully it's not overspiced now, but at least there's still at least a month until pumpkin ale drinking season if the spices need to fade at all.
I'm thinking the vanilla bean will be a very good addition to balance out the vegetal flavors. I'm looking forward to this.
So I brought about a cup of water to a boil and added to it 8 oz maltodextrin, the original amount of spices, and one split vanilla bean. I let this continue to boil for about 30 seconds, then cooled. I added this tea to the primary a few days ago, and haven't tasted it again. Hopefully it's not overspiced now, but at least there's still at least a month until pumpkin ale drinking season if the spices need to fade at all.
I'm thinking the vanilla bean will be a very good addition to balance out the vegetal flavors. I'm looking forward to this.
I brewed mine on sept 4 give or take a couple days. Tasted it today and I thought it had the spices just right. Not over powering like some of the pumpkin ales from the store and not underspiced like some have been saying. I will followed the recipe and used the dennys yeast.
CraigT
Well-Known Member
this may have been answered before but with toasting the marris otter, does it matter whether the grains have been crushed already?
OP
OP
KingBrianI
Well-Known Member
Toast them before crushing.
CraigT
Well-Known Member
i guess i might have to skip this step then since i have no way of crushing them.
bottlebomber
Well-Known Member
CraigT said:
Got a food processor or blender? That will get you by for this. I had to use it for the torrified wheat as that came to me uncrushed. Just pulse it till it resembles what you would normally work with
OP
OP
KingBrianI
Well-Known Member
With a small amount like that you can even throw it in a gallon ziploc bag and smash it with a rolling pin. Don't let crushing the grain keep you from using the toasted malt.
CraigT
Well-Known Member
okay thanks i never thought of that. this looks like a great recipe and kingbryan, i made your caramel amber a few months ago and it was the best amber i have ever tasted. so im excited to try this one out.
OP
OP
KingBrianI
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Nov 6, 2007
- Messages
- 62,016
- Reaction score
- 6,922
What efficiency is this recipe based off?
BetterSense
Well-Known Member
Mine is in secondary now and I have to say I'm not impressed. The spices smelled and tasted better before, but at this point they have kind of blended together into something vaguely cinnamony but not fresh tasting. No "zing" at all. I actually wish I hadn't added the spices at all because it would probably taste decent as a plain beer. My family's pumpkin pie recipe is just cinnamon and cloves, so maybe it's the other spices I'm objecting to. I think I may try to add some cinnamon and clove tea before bottling. Also the vanilla sounds like it might be a good thing. How much vanilla have people been adding to the secondary? Are we talking a teaspoon or so?
I had my first taste last night of my batch which I fermented with S-04. It finished pretty high 1.017, and the spices were really faint when I took the hydro sample so I added 1/2 tsp of spice to the keg. It's pretty sweet and overpowering right now.. I'm assuming the sweetness is from the pumpkin pie spice. I'm sure it will be great with a little time.
Be careful with the clove, I think that is what is giving mine a strong aftertaste.
OP
OP
KingBrianI
Well-Known Member
Oops, meant to look when I got home yesterday and forgot. I'll try remember to check Beersmith today when I get home and post up.
midfielder5
Well-Known Member
it looks like about 80% eff to me, as I had to add in some GP (2row) for my eff (70%).
ucbedge
Member
Brewed this 12 days ago and it's sitting in my primary fermenter. Still getting bubbles out of the airlock at the rate of one every 45 seconds. Took a hydrometer reading and its sitting at 1.015, so I'll keep it there another few days. Taking longer in the primary than I ancitipated....
The only problem that I foresee is that my beer is much lighter than the picture posted on the first page of this thread. I think I'm around 9 SRM...which seems much lighter than either the recipe or the picture indicates. I came within one point of the OG, so I'm not sure what's causing the drastic color difference.
Beer taste after 12 days is nice, but definitely young. Sprice note is prominent to the smell...not so much to the taste. I dont know if its the age or if I took a faulty OG reading, but I was hoping for a bigger malt character than this beer has. Overall though, I'm impressed.
The only problem that I foresee is that my beer is much lighter than the picture posted on the first page of this thread. I think I'm around 9 SRM...which seems much lighter than either the recipe or the picture indicates. I came within one point of the OG, so I'm not sure what's causing the drastic color difference.
Beer taste after 12 days is nice, but definitely young. Sprice note is prominent to the smell...not so much to the taste. I dont know if its the age or if I took a faulty OG reading, but I was hoping for a bigger malt character than this beer has. Overall though, I'm impressed.
OP
OP
KingBrianI
Well-Known Member
Close, it was based on 75% efficiency, just checked.
Hmm, did you remember to add the molasses? If so the only other thing I can think of is that for some reason, your toasted malt didn't get as dark as mine did. Or did you use crystal 20 or something in place of the 34L caramalt?
bottlebomber
Well-Known Member
ucbedge, I had the same experience of the beer seeming much lighter. When its a full pint glass, and not just a test vial full it may appear as it did in the picture though
WarrantedFED
Well-Known Member
WarrantedFED said:
I kegged my beer this weekend out of the primary and dumped the Northern Brewer pumpkin ale onto the 2 gallons of trub that I had left over.
My initial impression, while the beer is still keg conditioning, is that the beer needs to sit for maybe a week or more to mellow out; I dumped some vanilla and Vietnamese ceylon sticks that had soaked in vodka, and provided plenty of the other spices as well. Since I had overdone it with cloves in some previous cooking recipe I exercised restraint with that one.
Initially I find the flavor to be rather spot on to a slice of pumpkin pie with a dollop of cool whip on top. The 2 lbs of oatmeal really came through nicely.
mountainman13
Well-Known Member
It's still in the fermenter, but it tastes friggin awesome! I added fresh majoram leaves from my garden after a week of fermentation and also soaked American oak chips and whole cinnamon sticks in Maker's Mark for a week and threw it in. It's REAL hard to resist throwing this stuff in a keg. I'd like to bottle it, but I'm not sure that's gonna happen.
ucbedge
Member
Thanks! Yes, I did take the SRM reading from a test vial so that could definitely skew my perception. I did add the molasses - in fact, I didn't make any changes to the recipe and basically hit my OG (one point off).
Besides the color though, I imagine that this beer tastes almost exactly as the OP intended. It's definitely not a spicy as Dogfish Head, for example, but it's infinitely more "pumpkin-y". Exactly how I prefer my pumpkin ale. Again, these impressions are from the primary fermenter, so take them for what their worth.
Besides the color though, I imagine that this beer tastes almost exactly as the OP intended. It's definitely not a spicy as Dogfish Head, for example, but it's infinitely more "pumpkin-y". Exactly how I prefer my pumpkin ale. Again, these impressions are from the primary fermenter, so take them for what their worth.
